Dr David Musgrave

Poetry in motion

With a recent revival
in Australia's poetry scene, acclaimed poet Dr David Musgrave, from the University of Newcastle, is paving the way
for others to follow his path to success.

As a nationally significant poet and novelist, researcher,
lecturer, critic and publisher, Dr David Musgrave has a deep familiarity with
all aspects of the thriving contemporary Australian poetry scene.

He has authored five books of poetry, To Thalia (2004), On
Reflection (2005), Watermark (2006), Phantom Limb (2010) and Concrete
Tuesday (2011), and his work has won or been shortlisted for a swathe of
awards, including the Henry Lawson, Broadway, Bruce Dawe, Somerset, Sidney
Nolan Gallery, Grace Leven, Josephine Ulrick, John Shaw Neilson, Alec Bolton,
SA Festival and WA Premier's and Newcastle Poetry Prizes.

As a lecturer in Newcastle's highly successful and rapidly
growing creative writing department, his research is closely aligned with his
teaching of creative writing in contemporary Australian poetry. He is also one
of Australia's leading critics and publishers of quality writing.

"It's a very exciting
time to be working in this area, there's so much being produced at the moment
and people's ability to research and criticise seriously doesn't keep up," he
says.

But David also knows the downsides of trying to earn a
living as a working poet. In 1997, having completed his PhD on Menippean satire
at University of Sydney and written his first novel, he was unable to find a
publisher. Shifts in the global publishing industry had seen major publishing
houses stop taking on individual collections of poetry, and smaller publishers
were unwilling to take risks on younger poets.

The only way David could earn a living was to take a job in
IT for a health insurance company. He stayed there for nine years, writing
creatively for several hours early every morning before going to the office as
CIO.

"My foray into the corporate world was a holding pattern and
it allowed me to continue to work," he says.

"IT and poetry are not that different. Poetry is about
solving a problem, a need to express something, create something or say
something, and the creative process is continuing to solve problems until you
arrive at that point."

As well as
continuing his creative writing during this period, David built a reputation as
a critic and researcher, specialising in satire and the grotesque in English
and Australian literature.

He was toying with the idea of publishing others' poetry
when he was approached by a friend whose publisher had backed out of a book
project. "I didn't want anyone to go through what I had had to go through again,"
David says, and used his own literary prize money to publish the book.

His independent publishing house Puncher & Wattmann was
born in 2005 and has become Australia's leading publisher of Australian poetry,
with 85 titles on its list by some of the country's major poets, novelists and biographers.

In 2010 David joined the University of Newcastle's creative
writing department, which had grown from just one academic to a team of three
renowned writers whose students are achieving some success in the literary
world. In 2013, two UON Creative Writing RHD students were short-listed in the
2013 Premier's Literary Awards.

"Poetry offers people a way of discovering new ideas, of giving
expression to things that otherwise can't be expressed," he says.

"If our understanding of the world consisted entirely of
science and popular culture, it doesn't seem to me we would necessarily be able
to think of new ways to perceive things or do things in non-rational ways. And
most people would admit that, without that aspect, they would feel
impoverished."

David is now considered to be among the foremost of his
generation of contemporary Australian poets and, with the publication of his
work in the United States and Britain, is gaining international acclaim.

A key theme of
work is the continuity throughout English literature of satire, a sceptical and
playful critical attitude toward knowledge itself. While there is a thread of
satirical humour through his own work, it is at the same time serious.

"I have a joy of satire, of being in it and part of it, of
making fun of it. It seems to me there is
something fundamentally human about someone coming up against a system of
knowledge and blowing a raspberry at it," he says.

David's current research interests include the rise of
free verse in Australian poetry; the so‐called Generation of '68 and the
introduction of postmodernism into Australian poetry, and the ensuing conflict
between conservative and avant garde camps; and the anti‐pastoral tradition in Australian
poetry.

He is also exploring the synergies between his own creative work and his
research, focusing on the contemporary avant garde and their influences and in particular
poetic theories of 'voice' and 'voicedness' in poetry. His book-length poem Anatomy of Voice, which investigates
these issues, is to be published in 2014.

He is also continuing to write poems for a new collection, Fabulae, and to work on his next novel, The Obituary Collector.

Career Summary

Biography

Ba (Hons) first class from the University of Sydney (1991) and PhD from the University of Sydney 1997, Dissertation "Figurations of the Grotesque in Menippean Satire" Author of four books of poetry: To Thalia (Five Islands, 2004), On Reflection (Interactive, 2005), Watermark (Picaro, 2006), Phantom Limb (2010) and Concrete Tuesday (2011). To Thalia was commended for the Anne Elder Award and Phantom Limb was shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier's Prize and the Adelaide Festival John Bray Poetry Prizes and was awarded the Grace leven Prize for Poetry in 2011. Author of one novel, Glissando: A Melodrama (Sleepers 2010), which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Award for Fiction and the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing. Individual poems have either won or been shortlisted for the following prizes: The Newcastle Poetry Prize, the Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize, The Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize, The Broadway (Poets Union) Poetry Prize, The Sidney Nolan Gallery Poetry Prize, The Henry Lawson Poetry Prize, The FAW John Shaw Neilson Poetry Prize, The Alec Bolton Poetry Prize and The Somerset Poetry Prize.

Research ExpertiseI am currently researching contemporary Australian poetry. I have published on modern Australian novelists such as Patrick White, David Ireland and Norman Lindsay. I have also published on Samuel Beckett. A particular area of focus is the grotesque in art and literature as well as satire, specifically Menippean satire.

Teaching ExpertiseI currently teach Creative Writing at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I also teach Romantic Literature and Victorian Literature. I have experience in teaching Australian Literature, Modernism, Literary Theory, Analytical Reading and Writing Skills, Rhetorical Studies, Gothic Fiction and contemporary Australian Poetry.